


Growing Up Peter Parker

by thewaysofthefandoms



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Gen, Growing Up, Kid Fic, Slow Build, Superfamily, domestic fic, like reeeeeaaaally slow build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 09:00:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1738895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewaysofthefandoms/pseuds/thewaysofthefandoms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toni gave her baby away because she knew his life would be better without her. Six years later, however, that baby needs someone to take care of him, and that someone is Toni. </p>
<p>Raising a child could help Toni in more ways than she can imagine; and maybe, just maybe, it'll help some others along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfic! I have a lot of plans for this, so I'm really trying hard to keep moving with it...updates can be like two or three months apart, and I'm **so** sorry about that, it's just...my life. I'm sorry. Give it a try anyway? It'll be finished, I promised. Eventually.
> 
> All events take place after Avengers and before Iron Man 3. Eventual plans to involve all of phase two. Probably not any of phase three. The survival of Coulson was revealed to the team after the Battle of New York was over. Don't ask me how Agents of Shield canon fits in here, currently I have no clue. Possibly it will be involved later, if I can work it in somehow.
> 
> EDIT (08/12/2014): Everything's now been proofread again and adjusted...Iron Woman is now Iron Maiden all through this fic, no more confusion. If you're here for a new chapter and you haven't read the updated version, you don't _have_ to read it, nothing's really different, except one paragraph in the prologue about Peter's father (hint: I genderswapped another person). Everything else should be the same except minor grammar changes. Enjoy! :)

Antonia Maria Stark. Beautiful, extremely intelligent, incredibly immature, and...pregnant? She stared at the pregnancy test. Then she shook it, for good measure. But no, still stubbornly showing a plus sign. _Pregnant. Oh God._

“Toni?” a voice called through the bathroom door. “What’s the result?” 

Toni walked slowly to the door and pulled it open. Wordlessly, she handed the test to Pepper, who was standing on the other side. Pepper looked at it, then at Toni. 

“Alright then,” said Pepper, collected as always. “What are we going to do about this?”

\---

It was just some one-night stand. It was New Years, and Toni was stupid drunk, and there was this intelligent and beautiful man, and she slept with him, because that was the sort of thing she did. Curse you, open bar!

“How am I pregnant, Pepper? I’m on the pill!” Toni wailed, her hands running over her face. “This cannot be happening, oh god.” She sat down on the nearest surface, and put her face in her hands. “I cannot be pregnant. I am the world’s _most_ unqualified person to be a mother.” 

Pepper looked at her. “Toni,” she said, “You’re freaking out unnecessarily.” She put the pregnancy test down next to Toni. “You have options. You don’t have to keep it, or you can give it up for adoption.” 

For the millionth time that day, Toni thanked whatever powers that be for Pepper Potts. She was an oasis of calm in the midst of the storm that was Toni Stark. Then she sat there breathing deeply for a while. 

\---

In the end, she decided to carry the baby to term. She spent the next nine months completely sober and hiding from the press, which were both incredibly hard, and so out of character for her that there was a rumour she’d died.

\---

When the baby came, she called him Peter. She gave him away, and she never looked back.


	2. Toni Has A Life-Changing Conversation (Or Two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some ghosts appear from Toni's past.

_Approximately 6 Years Later_

**Two Killed, One Injured in Lab Explosion  
 _Richard and Mary Parker, respected scientists, were killed in an explosion at Oscorp yesterday...the Parkers leave behind their son, Peter, who was with them and is currently in the hospital in stable condition._**

Toni and Pepper were sitting at Toni’s dining room table, discussing Toni’s suit upgrades. Or, Toni was discussing her suit upgrades. Pepper was going over finance reports and making vague noises of agreement. 

“Agent Coulson is here to see you, ma’am”, Jarvis suddenly interrupted. Toni looked up, surprised. “Coulson?” she asked, “Why is Coulson here?” 

“He didn’t say, ma’am”, said Jarvis, “only that it is important; I thought it best to let him up.” 

Toni sighed. “Since you already told him I would talk…” she stood up and headed to the elevator door just in time to see the door slide open and reveal Coulson on the other side. 

“Phil!” Pepper walked forwards and shook Coulson’s hand. Then she took in the serious expression on Coulson’s face. “Has something happened?” she asked. 

“I’m afraid so, yes. Ms Stark,” he nodded at Toni, “You might want to sit down for this.” he held out a tablet. Toni opened her mouth “I don’t like-” but Coulson turned and handed the tablet to Pepper, who handed it to Toni. Then Pepper and Coulson walked to the living area, Toni following behind. 

\---

Coulson and Pepper sat down on the couch, but Toni didn’t feel like sitting down. She stood in front of the fireplace, facing the couch. She pulled the tablet out and starting flicking through it, but she didn’t get very far before Coulson interrupted her. 

“Ms Stark”, he said. Toni looked up. “Do you know the current whereabouts of your son?” 

Toni’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?” she asked. She couldn’t fathom what that had to do with anything at this point. That was six years ago. Why was it relevant now?

“Your son, Ms Stark.” Coulson looked at her, his face blank like always. “Peter. Do you know where he is?” 

Toni took a deep breath through her nose. “No, I don’t. What does he have to do with this?” she gestured at the tablet. 

“Everything, I’m afraid.” said Coulson. 

“If you’re just going to be deliberately cryptic-” started Toni, 

Pepper interrupted. “Phil, why don’t you start from the beginning.”

\---

Coulson gestured for the tablet; Toni handed it to him wordlessly. Coulson adjusted it until he had what he was looking for, then held it up for Pepper and Toni to see. 

It showed a family; a mother and father and a small child. “These are the Parkers.” Coulson started. “Richard and Mary, and their son, Peter. Up until three weeks ago, they lived in Queens, and both Mr and Mrs Parker worked for Oscorp.” 

He swiped the tablet to the next picture; this one looked like a bomb had gone off. “Three weeks ago, however, there was an explosion at Oscorp; you may have heard about that.” he said.

“Yes, it was terrible.” said Pepper, “that was this child?” she said, gesturing at the tablet. 

“Yes,” nodded Coulson. “The Parkers took young Peter with them to the lab all the time. This particular day, however...well, you can see what happened. They’re both dead, and young Peter’s in the hospital.”

“Well, that’s very tragic, Coulson, but I still don’t know what that has to do with me.” Coulson took a breath to speak, but Toni talked over him. “Even if that is my son, which I don’t know if he is or not, I gave him up. He’s not mine anymore, in any way, shape or form. Doesn’t this kid have other family?” 

“That’s where it gets interesting.” said Coulson. “It was relatively straightforward; his parents’ will explicitly stated that he went to Richard’s brother, Ben.” Toni nodded; that made sense. “But three days after the explosion, his Aunt and Uncle were both killed in a car accident.” 

“People die in car accidents all the time.” pointed out Pepper. 

“Yes, that’s true, but the circumstances for both the explosion and the car accident were extremely suspect.” 

“There was nothing in the news…” started Pepper. 

“Well, the police didn’t find anything suspicious; just a lab accident.” answered Coulson. “Shield is not the police, however. The explosion was definitely manufactured; very, very well, by someone very high up.”

Coulson looked at Toni, as though expecting a reaction. She just stared at him. 

“Then, there was a break-in at the hospital, and the intruder was only stopped because Shield had already set up a watch over the boy. The break-in confirmed our suspicions that someone is definitely after him. He saw something, or knows something, and someone considers that dangerous. Therefore, it would be very unsafe for him to go into the foster system, which leads us to…” Coulson looked at Toni. 

Toni raised her hands and shook her head. “Oh, no. I see where you’re going with this. I am not taking the kid. No sir-ee.” She crossed her arms. “Do you even have proof that this is my kid? That baby was born in California.” 

Coulson silently pulled an image up on the tablet and handed it to Toni. A birth certificates, listing the child as Peter Edwin Stark. Mother, Antonia Stark. She scrolled to the next image; adoption records. Then, a new birth certificate, listing the child as Peter Benjamin Parker. Then, more papers from the hospital where Peter was born. Toni remembered that day vividly. 

“The child needs protection, Ms. Stark.” Coulson said. “He’s got an unknown adversary that has the ability to fake an explosion and a car accident, so well that they look completely accidental. And they have the resources to send a hitman who can break into the children’s hospital.” 

Toni could see Pepper caving; she was making sympathetic faces. 

Even Toni was having some doubts. After all, she was so different from the girl who gave up her baby six years ago…

She shook her head, trying to clear it. “Just...just give me some time to think about it?” she asked, but she knew she was already lost at that point. 

\---

She thought about it the rest of the afternoon, all through dinner, and all through the evening. She went out for a flight because that always cleared her head; but not this time.

Finally, she put on her pajamas, climbed into bed, and called the one person who always knew the _right_ thing: Steve. He was in Washington, but they saw each other for Avengers stuff a lot, and at this point, she trusted his moral compass a lot more than her own.

“-I just...I just don’t know what to do now.” she finished, after recapping everything Coulson had said. “This kid needs help, and I can give that help, but-” she ran her free hand through her hair, “what kid deserves me as a mother?” 

“I can tell you the right thing; the right thing is to take him in and take care of him.” said Steve. “But that doesn’t mean it’s gonna work out for you...you have to make a commitment to take care of a living, breathing human being. Last time, you couldn’t make that commitment. Can you make it now?”

Toni breathed in. Then let it out. Then breathed it in again. Finally, she spoke. “I think I can.” she said, quietly. “I almost feel like...like I’m being given a second chance.”

“Well then, there’s your answer.” Steve replied. 

Toni nodded, then remembered that Steve couldn't see her. “Yup.” she nodded to herself again. “I’ll phone Coulson tomorrow.”

“You ready for this?” asked Steve. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Toni replied. “Guess i’m having a baby!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The introduction of Steve! How exciting. Peter'll show up next chapter, I promise. I was originally intending to have more this chapter...but I decided I'd rather give you guys a shorter update sooner. Also, I have five exams over the next week and a half, so I'm not sure when the next update will be.


	3. There Are New People (And One Annoying and Cryptic Shield Agent)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni's having a baby. (Again)

Two days passed, and Toni found herself sitting in a hospital waiting room, wondering exactly how she'd got there. 

“You’ll have to meet him,” Coulson had stated in his no-nonsense way. “He’s currently in the hospital, so you can go talk to him, and when he’s discharged you can bring him here. We’ll take care of everything else.”

Toni wasn’t really sure what ‘take care of everything’ meant, but she figured she didn't want to know.

She was started from her thoughts by someone calling her name. She looked up to see a nurse looking at her expectantly. 

“Ms Stark?” the nurse said again. She had a British accent. “Follow me please.” 

Toni stood up and followed the nurse out of the waiting room and down the hall. The nurse was holding a clipboard that she consulted as they walked.

“Multiple cuts,” she read in her prim accent, “bruises, and seven what looked like spider bites, one on his right hand, five up his right arm, and one on his right shoulder. Also a concussion that resulted in unconsciousness for three days. He’s awake now, though, and healing up just fine." She wrinkled her brow. "The only lasting issue is, he won’t talk.” she paused here and looked at Toni, obviously expecting some kind of reaction. 

Toni didn’t have a reaction to give. She was overwhelmed by all of this; it was happening so fast. 

The nurse continued. “Physically, he’s on his way to being perfectly alright, but...he just won’t say anything. To anyone!” 

The nurse was halted from further elaboration on this point by their arrival to Peter’s room.

“Peter?” the nurse said, quietly, leading Toni into the room. “There’s someone here to see you, love.” She ushered Toni in, and then turned and headed right back out again, saying “I’ll just leave you two to get to know each other, then.” 

Toni looked at the boy in the bed. 

The boy in the bed looked at her.

She sat down next to the bed, still not saying anything, and watched Peter watching her. 

She was beginning to understand why the nurse had left so quickly; there was something unnerving about how quiet this child was. He was only six, she knew, but his eyes were older. Being an orphan did that to you; she knew all about that. 

So this was her child, Peter. A little on the skinny side, brown hair, brown eyes...basically average looking. She wouldn't have immediately thought this was her son at all, except that the eyes watching her were the same eyes that stared at her in the mirror every day. Which was more than a little unsettling, especially staring like that. Unblinking, cataloguing, judging...silently. 

Finally she couldn’t take it anymore. She held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Toni.” 

The boy looked down at the hand, then lifted his own and shook it. He had a surprisingly strong grip for a six-year old who’d been in the hospital for two weeks. He’d been drawing before she’d got there, she saw; people and houses and animals, but also explosions, and spiders. A lot of explosions and spiders.

She let go of his hand and rested both her own in her lap. “So..." She began, unsure how to start. "I know you’re Peter...I know you don’t talk. That’s ok, if you don’t wanna talk. I’ll just talk, and you can listen, is that ok?” she asked. 

He looked at her for a moment, then nodded. 

“Alright then.” Toni took a deep breath, marshalling her thoughts, then decided to just jump right in. “I don’t know if the hospital’s told you or not, about your family.” Peter nodded again, which Toni guessed meant they had. “So you’re going to come live with me now, I guess.” she scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. “Did they tell you that?” Peter shook his head. “Well, you are. And I know i’m not your family, but…” she wrung her hands together. “I don’t really have a family anymore, either, and I guess maybe the two of us…” she flailed a little, “can keep each other company a little?” She took a deep breath. “I lost my mom and dad too.” 

Peter looked exactly the same as before, so Toni chose to interpret this as good. 

“Look,” she said, as earnest as she could manage, “I’m not going to try and be your mom, ok?” She looked at Peter. “Your mom was amazing, right?” she asked. This received a nod. “and I can’t replace that. But you’re all by yourself, and I’m all by myself, and we can help each other.” Another nod. “And if you don’t want to talk, you don’t have to talk.” 

\---

She didn’t stay much longer after that; she didn't have much else to say. What she’d said was the truth, that was all. She tried not to dwell on it. 

The Avengers were scattered all over the world (and further, if you counted Thor). Sure, they worked together well in a fight, and they had their individual friendships, but they weren’t really all that close as a group.

As much as she hated to admit it, she was basically by herself. Especially since she'd cut out the drinking and the partying; now she didn't even have anything superficial to fill her days.

That was part of the reason she'd agreed to take Peter in. 

Because really, who agrees to take in a child they purposely gave up six years ago? 

Toni, apparently.

She still honestly couldn't fathom why she'd agreed. 

What she'd told Steve was definitely part of it. She'd spent such a long time taking whatever she wanted and giving nothing back...she'd vowed to herself, after donning the suit, that she wasn't that girl anymore. She was good now. She helped people.

When she wasn't helping people, however...well, she'd admitted it to Peter, which was new. She'd never admitted it out loud before. She was lonely. Had been her entire life, really. She just covered it up well. 

So here she was, presented with an opportunity to both help someone and ease her loneliness a little. 

Was it any wonder she'd accepted? 

\---

She arrived back at Stark tower to find Coulson and Pepper sitting in the living room, surrounded by piles of miscellaneous stuff, and a bunch of strangers running around carrying papers and cardboard boxes and muttering to themselves. 

“What the hell?” Toni said, weaving her way around both people and stuff in order to stand in front of Pepper. 

“You really need a new assistant, Toni,” was Pepper’s response. “I'm not organizing you anymore, but you clearly can’t do it yourself.” 

Toni sat down across from the couch, confused. “Ok…what does that have to do with anything?”

Coulson looked up. “We’ve just been examining your affairs in order to help the adoption go through easier.” He gestured at the workers running around. "Social services will have to do a home inspection; we’ve just been redoing your spare room.” 

Upon closer inspection, the stuff all over the living room was revealed to be the contents of said spare room, where she’d simply been throwing things for the last little while. It was true, now that Pepper was busy, her life was pretty disorganized. Toni didn’t really mind, though, so she hadn’t done anything about it. 

Pepper moved some more things from one pile to another. “Have you really just been piling things in there?” she asked. It was obviously a rhetorical question, though. “I’ll have to start looking for someone else to organize you.” She then pointed at one pile. “These have to be dealt with, pronto.” She pointed again. “This pile simply needs to be thrown out.” Then she pointed at the largest pile. “These should have been dealt with, but weren’t, and now I’m going to have to fix them.” she glared at Toni. 

Toni lifted her hands in surrender. “Sorry!” she said. “I just can’t bring myself to care about any of that stuff.” she shrugged. “By all means, find me someone who will. Just make sure they can deal with the Iron Maiden stuff at the same time.” 

At that point, Pepper went back to her sorting, looking thoughtful, and Coulson looked up with his business face on. Which looked a lot like his normal face, actually. Toni had trouble telling apart the many faces of Agent Coulson.

"So, Ms Stark. We've streamlined the application process as much as possible, but you're still going to have to have a home inspection and an interview. The fact that you're his biological mother helps your case a little, but you're still going to have to convince the social worker. "

Toni took a deep breath. She'd committed to this; she had to stick it out. "Alright. When is the social worker coming?" 

"Probably later this week. We'd like to get Peter here as soon as possible, and he'll probably be discharged this weekend." 

"And what do I have to do?" Toni asked. 

"Prove you're a responsible adult." Coulson said. Pepper snorted quite inelegantly without looking up. 

Toni tried to look affronted. "Pepper." She said, indignantly, "are you implying that I'm not a responsible adult?" 

Pepper just looked at her. 

Toni didn't have any response to that, so she turned back to Coulson. "Alright, impress the social worker. I can do that." Toni nodded to herself. 

"Good." Coulson nodded at his workers, who looked like they were finished, and stood up. "Good luck, Ms Stark" he said, walking away. 

When he reached the elevator, he turned around. "We'll be in touch." he said, as the elevator doors slid closed. 

"Could that guy be any more annoying and cryptic?" Toni asked no one in particular. 

\--

Toni was uncomfortable. Very, very uncomfortable. She was wearing her nice pants and she'd actually done her hair and her nails, and she was sitting across from a stranger in the Stark Tower penthouse. A very judgemental stranger, to be exact. Not that she really blamed her, since it was her job to be judgemental, but still. That didn't make it any less uncomfortable. 

So far, the woman (Shelley, apparently) hadn't said anything too disparaging. Or said anything at all, really. Mostly Toni had led her around the apartment and Shelley had written lots of little notes on her clipboard with a very intense poker face. 

Now, Toni was sitting and doing her damnedest to appear like a responsible adult. She was Iron Maiden, goddamnit! She could sit through one interview with social services!

Probably. 

Hopefully. 

She could, right?

"Well, Ms Stark," Shelley was saying, "your living arrangements and your finances definitely get a passing grade. Now I just have to chat with you for a little while." 

Shelley levelled Toni with a long piercing look. Toni shivered; it felt like Shelley was staring straight into her soul. 

"So, Ms Stark." Shelley looked down at her clipboard. "What made you consider adopting?"

Toni took a deep breath. She couldn't exactly tell the literal truth, which was that she hadn't considered it at all until an irritating Shield agent had coerced her into it for the safety of a boy she’s purposefully given up and then hadn't thought about for six years. Instead, she tried her best to look sincere and gave the emotional truth instead."I'm just tired of being alone, I supose." She said. "I'd been thinking about it for a little while, and then I heard about the terrible accident, and I realized that was my son, and he didn't have anywhere to go...and I guess that was the opportunity I was waiting for." She tried for a smile. It probably came out more as a grimace.

Shelley nodded several times and made a note on her clipboard. "What do you have to say about your terrible reputation and your representation by the media as a, quote, 'immature, reckless party girl'?" 

Toni bristled. "Well, first of all, you should always take everything the media says with a grain of salt" 

She recollected herself. "but I'll definitely admit that I had some wild years. The reason I gave Peter up in the first place was because I knew I couldn't take care of him." 

She was considering every word very carefully now; this part was vital. "At this point, however, I firmly believe that I'm a very different person than I was back then." She spread her hands and tried to look sincere. "I don't know what you do or don't know about my life, but suffice to say, I've been through a lot of life changing events over the last five years."

She looked at Shelley, trying to judge what she was thinking, but the woman was still inscrutable. 

"Ms Stark," Shelley began, "I want to impress upon you that I deal with a lot of problem families." Toni nodded, not sure where this was going. 

Shelley continued. "That means I deal with a lot of liars, Ms Stark." Shelley looked at her with her unreadable eyes. "And I believe that what I'm hearing from you, right now, is genuine." Shelley smiled at Toni for the first time. "Before I give you a pass, however, I must ask you about your role as Iron Maiden and a member of the Avengers. Do you think you can do that and raise a child at the same time?"

Toni stopped to think about it. She honestly hadn't given it that much thought. 

"I think I can," she finally said. "I have a support group that would be able to take care of him if there was an emergency." 

Shelley nodded, satisfied. She looked down at her clipboard and scribbled something with an air of finality. "I'm going to give you a resounding pass." She smiled at Toni again. "I believe you need this child, Ms Stark. I think he'll do as much for you as you will for him." 

"Thank you!" Toni stammered out. She leaned forward and shook Shelleys hand, then stood up with her and showed her to the elevator, still processing what had happened. "Thank you so much!"

\---

Saturday morning, Toni found herself in front of the British nurse again. 

"You'll have to get him to a doctor after two weeks," she was saying, while filling out discharge papers. "Just to check up on him. Sign here, please." She passed the papers over, smiling. 

Toni signed on the dotted line, then followed the nurse to Peter's room. 

"Peter?" called the nurse, walking into the room. "Ms Stark’s here to take you home, love." 

Peter was sitting on the edge his bed in his street clothes. He looked a lot more comfortable than the last time Toni'd seen him; but the sad look in his eyes was the same as ever. 

Toni crouched down to eye level. "Remember me, Peter?"

Peter nodded. 

"We're gonna go back to my house; you're gonna live there now. Is that ok?" She wasn't sure how she should react if that wasn't ok, but thankfully Peter nodded. 

She stood up and grabbed Peter's suitcase from the floor and offered Peter her hand. 

He took it, and she faced the door. "C'mon, kiddo. Let's go face the new world together."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At long last, here's chapter two! It's way longer than chapter one, at least. I hope it's worth the wait?
> 
> As always, beta'd by the lovely draggonsspire. 
> 
> You guys should know i'm changing the tone and plot of this fic some; it's going to be completely Toni's POV and about her journey becoming a mother and gaining a family. I'm also planning on writing a sequel that focuses on Peter, so the questions that have been raised so far will still be answered. Basically, I did some thinking and realized that there was lots of character development to be had on Toni's side, so I should focus on that instead of trying to juggle both. As Ron Swanson says, "never half ass two things. Whole ass one thing." Hopefully I can write it to be a balance between Toni and Peter becoming a family and the rest of the Avengers becoming a family at the same time. Also there will be Toni/Steve in there too, because that was the original point of this idea, a long time ago, but that's not the main focus. Also I'll try and write some smut for you guys, but being a 17 year-old virgin who's never written smut before, it might be really awful. I hope not. 
> 
> Oh, and I've solidified my timeline and stuff, so this fic is set basically pretty soon after Avengers is finished, and before Iron Man 3. and I have to go back and watch all the post-Avengers movies again to make sure I can work them in properly.
> 
> The point of this long rant is that i'm hoping you guys will understand and stick around anyway. :) 
> 
> I love you guys! Thanks for reading!


	4. Breakfast and a Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni and Peter get used to one another, and Toni has _feelings_.

Living with Peter Parker was going to be an interesting experience.

Toni assumed that living with any six year-old was an experience. Toni, however, had the added benefit of having no knowledge of child-rearing and a six year-old who didn't talk.

As they headed out of the hospital and to the car, Toni found herself talking to fill the silence. She rambled on about nothing in particular, telling Peter about Stark Tower and her-no, their, apartment on the very top floor.

The car ride was a little better, since she just helped Peter onto his booster seat and then climbed into the front. She put the radio on and bobbed her head to the song that was playing; she didn't recognize it specifically but she thought it was maybe Maroon 5. 

Peter gazed serenely out the window the entire trip. Toni wondered if he'd even spent that much time downtown before; he seemed enthralled by the views passing by.

They arrived at Stark Tower and Toni pulled into (one of) her designated spaces in the underground parking garage. She bundled Peter out of the car, grabbed his suitcase out of the trunk, and herded him towards the elevator. He was obviously a car kid; he was dragging his feet, looking with awe at the VIP section of the Stark Industries parkade. 

"C'mon, bud," she called, "time to go see your new house."

They climbed into the elevator. "Welcome back, ma'am," said Jarvis over the intercom. "I imagine this must be the young Master Parker?"

Peter jumped and looked around wildly, looking, she assumed, for the source of the voice. Toni explained. "That's Jarvis, he's an AI” When Peter still looked confused, she clarified, “artificial intelligence. Like a robot.” Peter nodded in understanding, and she continued, “he lives sort of everywhere in this building, and he helps me with stuff." 

Peter nodded his understanding, then made a questioning face and gestured at himself. Toni couldn't figure out what he was trying to say, so he tried again; he made a questioning face, pointed at the ceiling of the elevator, then at himself. 

Toni hazarded a guess. "Will Jarvis help you, too?" She tried. Peter nodded. 

"Of course." Came Jarvis's voice. 

Peter looked delighted. Toni smiled; this was the happiest she'd seen him so far. It filled her with a fuzzy feeling inside, which was alarming because she wasn't used to fuzzy feelings. She was used to feelings of pain, of guilt, of sadness...she was used to jolting awake in the middle of the night, panting, with visions of New York in her eyes. 

The elevator gave a pleasant ding and opened to reveal Toni's penthouse. Toni exited the elevator, beckoning Peter behind her. "Welcome to your new house." she said, gesturing. "Your room's this way, c'mon." 

She gave Peter a basic tour as they headed towards the stairs, simply pointing things out. "That's the kitchen, the dining room, the living room..." she headed up the stairs, Peter in tow. 

When she reached the second floor, she first pointed out her bedroom, then pushed Peter's bedroom door open. She stepped to the side and let Peter go first. 

He stopped inside the doorway, surveying. God, he was a hard kid to read. 

They'd brought in some of the stuff from his old bedroom, but not all of it. Pepper had said that some familiarity was good, but too much was damaging. Toni'd taken her word for it. 

It was a pretty regular bedroom, as far as bedrooms go. It was painted light blue, and the far wall had a whole row of windows. The big furniture was new but not fancy, just plain and white. The little stuff was what Pepper had brought from Peter's room, and Toni could see Peter evaluating it. The toy bin, and the books on the bookshelf, and the pictures on the walls. 

On the wall across from the bed there was a photo in a wooden frame. The photo wasn't really that remarkable, but Toni thought it was beautiful all the same. In it, a family was smiling at the camera. A grandma, holding a small boy; behind her, two brothers and their wives, connected through touch. The love in that photograph was obvious. 

Toni didn't know exactly where Pepper had found this photo; she only knew that everyone in it was dead except the little boy, and that she had an obligation now, to take care of him.

Peter obviously made a decision, because he picked up his suitcase set it on the bed. 

Toni pulled the closet door open, and together they unpacked the small suitcase, adding it to the clothes already in the closet. 

Pepper had transferred all of Peter's clothes, not knowing if any of them had sentimental value. Personally, Toni didn't really think a six year old was that attached to anything, but she hadn't argued. She could already tell Pepper was going to spoil this kid. Which left Toni being the strict one. How weird was that?

After the suitcase was unpacked, Toni picked it up. "I'm going to go put this away..." she said. "And then I think I feel like pizza. How does pizza sound?" Peter nodded. "Ultra meat?" Toni asked. Peter nodded again. 

"Alright, then, Jarvis. You heard the man." Toni said into the room. 

"Understood." Jarvis replied. 

\---

Dinner was...quiet. 

Then again, everything with Peter was quiet, so that wasn't a surprise. Toni pulled the plates out of the cabinet, handed Peter some pizza, and then plunked them both down in front of the tv.

When the pizza was done, they simply sat, Peter watching some kid's movie and Toni working on her suit designs again. She had a prototype for sustained underwater combat. It was still in idea stage, though, which meant a lot of muttering and throwing sentence fragments at Jarvis, who would then either confirm or deny them. It also involved a lot of messing around on her tablet and chucking ideas. 

Then, Jarvis interrupted her mid-thought. "Phone call from Dr. Banner, ma'am." 

Toni started, then replied, "Sure, Jarvis, put him through." 

Toni grabbed the phone off the coffee table and stood up. Peter seemed content with his movie (it involved dancing fish, apparently), so she walked into the kitchen. 

"Hey, Bruce, how's Columbia?" she started. 

"Columbia is good." Bruce answered. "How's New York?"

"New York is the same as always." She fidgeted with her hair a little. "Although..." she wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. 

"Toni..." Bruce's voice was wary. "What's happened?" 

"I didn't destroy anything, I swear!" she assured him, hurriedly. Possibly too hurriedly, because Bruce just sighed in response. "No, seriously. Nothing is destroyed,” she continued, “I just, um..." She picked at her nails. 

"Will you spit it out, please?" Bruce said. "You're making me antsy." 

"Ihaveasonnamedpeterandheslivingherenowwithme." she said, all in a rush. 

"Sorry?"

"I have a son. His name is Peter." Toni said, slower this time. "I gave him away, six years ago, but now he's back, and he’s living here. At the tower. With me."

"Ohh...kayy then" said Bruce, "have you been drinking?" 

"What?!" Toni yelled. She lowered her voice and hissed, "no, I have not been drinking.”

"You're serious. You have a child. Living with you. Right now." 

"Serious as a heart attack." 

"Where did that come from?"

At least he believed her now. "His parents were murdered. Or at least, Shield thinks they were. So they can't afford to put him in the foster system. Thus..."

"He's living with you." Bruce finished. 

"Exactly." 

There was a pause.

Then: "Wait, did you say murdered?" Bruce asked, incredulously. 

"Staged explosion at Oscorp." Toni replied, "and then a hitman at the hospital, after the kid, apparently."

A long pause. "Wow." Bruce finally said. "How's he holding up?"

"No clue. I know jackshit about kids." Toni replied.

"Hmm." Bruce replied. "Does he have a therapist?" 

"Yeah, weekly appointments." 

"Huh." 

"Enough about me and my sudden child-adopting," Toni said, forcibly changing the subject. "How's the research going?"

\---

When Toni got off the phone with Bruce a while later, she was feeling a lot better. 

After New York, Bruce had quickly joined Rhodey and Pepper in the small group of people she considered close friends. Their friendship now was as solid as a friendship that was decades old.

Mostly she felt a lot better because Bruce hadn't expressed any doubts about her parenting skills; she was still pretty worried that she was making a big mistake.

Thankfully, Jarvis interrupted her pessimistic stream of thought before it got too dark. "Ma'am, I do believe, given his young age, Master Peter should probably begin bedtime preparations soon."

Toni looked at the phone in her hand. Eight o'clock. Was that when six year olds normally went to bed? She had no clue. Also six year olds had to shower, didn't they? Could they shower by themselves?

Although technically, Peter would never be by himself in Stark Tower, because Jarvis would always be there. Toni always tried to avoid the creepy aspects of that and focus on the useful ones instead.

Toni walked back into the living room. Peter's movie looked like it was just finishing, if the triumphant music was anything to go by. Toni stopped next to the couch and looked down at Peter. "So, kiddo, you ok to take a shower now?"

Peter looked indifferent. 

"Alright, c'mon then." Toni beckoned Peter off the couch and started moving him towards the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she gave up and just scooped him into her arms; he wasn't very big. She figured that was genetic; she hadn't been big as a kid either.

She put him down when they arrived in the bathroom, showed him how to work the shower, and then helped him with his buttons, because he looked a little frustrated by them. Then she went looking for pajamas, leaving Peter under the vigilant care of Jarvis. 

Waiting for her in Peter's dresser was a pleasant surprise: pajamas with her on them. Ok, maybe not her, exactly, but Iron Maiden. Toni snorted to herself, wondering how much this had amused Pepper.

She put the Iron Maiden pajamas back in the drawer and pulled out the ones underneath, which were Captain America. "Ah, screw it." she muttered. There were worse people to have on your pajamas.

\---

Toni pulled the covers over a clean and Captain America-clad Peter. 

"Do you want anything before I go?" she asked. 

Peter nodded, then pointed. Toni followed his arm to the bookshelf. "What?" she asked, confused. 

Peter pointed again, more emphatically, and when she still looked confused, climbed out of bed, pulled a book out of the bookshelf, handed it to her, and climbed back into bed again.

Toni looked at the book in her hands. "Ohhh...You want me to read to you?" 

Peter nodded. 

"Alright then." Toni said, pulling the book open. 

"Jonathan's mother went to get a can of noodles. She said..." 

\---

There was something odd about having a child in your house; it put a lot of things in perspective. And Toni wasn't even that attached to him yet!

Her own childhood was mostly a giant hole in her brain that she ignored the majority of the time. The whole thing with her father and the new element had helped a little, but really? She was a big mess of insecurities and daddy issues, and she knew it.

This kid, however, had had it pretty nice so far, judging by the bedroom that had been transferred to Stark Tower.

Toni, god help her, would not ruin this kid's childhood. 

\---

Toni slept approximately four hours that night. Slightly better than her average, which was interesting. Peter slept in; it wasn't like he had school or anything. And he was also still recovering, which was easy to forget. 

Peter came staggering down the stairs at around ten, looking tired but adorable in his Cap pajamas. 

It suddenly occurred to Toni that she was eventually going to have to explain to this kid that she was Iron Maiden; that threw her for a minute.

She pushed that thought aside for the moment and instead beckoned Peter into the kitchen, where she lifted him up to the breakfast bar. 

"So, kiddo, what would you like for breakfast? I can't make a lot, but I have cereal, and toast, and I think I have some pop tarts around..." she rummaged through the cupboards and pulled out the cereal boxes, lining them up in front of Peter. 

Peter considered each very seriously before pointing at the Froot Loops. 

"A Froot Loops kinda day, huh? I get that." She pulled a bowl out of one cupboard and poured cereal into it. "That enough?" She looked up at Peter, who nodded. She added milk, pulled a spoon from the drawer, and placed it in front of Peter. "You want some OJ?"

Once Peter was eating his breakfast in the same way he did everything else, (quietly and very seriously), Toni went back to her plans, which were all over the rest of the breakfast bar. 

Peter was so quiet, Toni basically forgot he was there. It was only when a small hand crept into her line of vision that she blinked and remembered. She watched the small hand as it tugged on the corner of one of her diagrams, turning it slightly. Finished, the small hand retreated, silently. 

Toni raised her head slowly, not wanting to startle Peter. What she saw was a flashback, basically, living and breathing in front of her. 

It hit her, then, that _his was her son. Her son_ , sitting in front of her, staring at blueprints. _Her son_ , tracing the schematics with his finger. _Her son_ , thinking the same way she did; showing everything on his small face. He couldn't be more her son if he tried. He'd obviously got most of his looks from his father, but his brains were all Toni's.

Abruptly, Toni broke the silence. She didn't want to deal with the feelings that were choking her; therefore, deflect and distract. 

"You done your breakfast?" she asked.

Peter nodded. 

"Alright. Let's both get dressed, and then would you like to see my workshop?" 

Peter's eyes grew to saucers at the word 'workshop', and he nodded vigorously.

"Alright, hop to, kiddo." Toni hoisted Peter off his barstool and shooed him towards the stairs. 

\---

Toni was still reeling from the whole "my son" thing. So she did what she always did when she needed a distraction; she built stuff. 

(Well, she also had another distraction, but she couldn't really go find a hook-up right now; she had a six year-old to think about. And she was trying not to do that anymore, anyway.)

She showed Peter where all the basic tools were, and the basic supplies, and then she left him to it. She trusted Jarvis to keep an eye on him. 

She was attacking what she thought used to be a computer monitor with a screwdriver when she felt a tug on her arm. 

She started slightly and looked down to see Peter looking up at her, covered in grime. Seriously, covered in it. Was that what she looked like, when she came out of the shop? There was oil all over his face, his shirt; in his _hair_ , for God's sake. 

Peter was smiling widely at her and still tugging on her arm. She let him pull her away from her work bench, towards the other end of the room. Sitting on the bench there was a digital clock. A very messy, clunky, digital clock; but a digital clock nontheless, red numbers blinking.

"Peter!" Toni exclaimed, "you built this all by yourself?" 

Toni picked up the clock to have a closer look while Peter nodded and pointed at the ceiling, which Toni interpreted to mean, "Jarvis helped?" 

Peter nodded again, looking proud. 

"That's fabulous, bud!" She ruffled Peter's hair, inspecting the clock in her hands.

"You know what?" Toni asked.

Peter shook his head. 

"I think we deserve lunch out for this. Would you like that?" 

Peter nodded. 

"We can invite Pepper, so you can meet her." Toni said, putting the clock down. "Jarvis?" 

"I believe Ms Potts is indeed free for lunch, ma'am." Jarvis replied. 

"Great!" Toni said. "You'll love Pepper, I promise." Toni said, turning to Peter, "she's my favorite person in the whole world."

She stifled a giggle. "We should probably both clean up first, though." 

\---

Toni pulled her car into the street in front of her favorite Chinese food place. She opened the car door for Peter, who was much cleaner now. 

They were already settled at a table before Pepper walked in, looking around for them. Toni pointed at Pepper, saying to Peter, "that's Pepper." Then she waved.

Pepper walked over and slid into her chair gracefully. Then she turned to Peter and held out her hand. 

"You must be Peter." she said. "I'm Pepper. It's nice to meet you." 

Peter shook her hand, looking very solemn. The happy smiling kid from the workshop had disappeared, but Toni wasn't overly worried; she could see him, under the surface. 

She was beginning to understand why she seemed to have two very different children. Peter was so shrunken because of what happened; this was his coping mechanism. When he was busy and having fun, the real Peter came out for a little while. When he went back to the regular world, this quiet, serious boy was there instead. All Toni had to work on was getting the real Peter out more often. Piece of cake, right?

Yeah, totally. Piece of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3! Man, that took forever...I'm terrible at updating things. A thousand apologies to everyone who's been waiting.
> 
> The relationship between Toni and Peter is developing nicely, I think. And the introduction of Bruce! I have no idea what's in Columbia. Maybe that'll be explained later. Who knows. 
> 
> The book referenced is "Jonathan Cleaned Up - Then He Heard a Sound" by Robert Munch. It's a fabulous book that you should definitely read.
> 
> As always, beta'd by the lovely dragonsspire.
> 
> Reviews and comments are always appreciated! Knowing that you guys are reading really inspires me to keep writing.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	5. There Are Pancakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni and Peter get used to one another.

_"Stark. You know that's a one way trip."_

_The only thing she really noticed about space was that is was really big. And cold._

_"I know guys with none of that, worth ten of you."_

_She was going to die; that really sucked._

_"You don't deserve to wear one of these!"_

_What a sad way to die._

_"Do you really think, that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?"_

Toni jolted awake, breathing hard, Obadiah's voice still ringing in her ears.

She blinked at the ceiling for a long moment before rolling over and checking the time: 3 AM. So, two hours of sleep.

She sat up, slowly, and threw off the covers. Maybe if she had a glass of water, she could sleep for a little longer. 

She snorted; _wishful thinking_. She stood up and quietly padded her way to the kitchen. 

She was on her way back up the stairs when Jarvis spoke very softly. 

"Ma'am? Young master Parker seems to be in considerable distress." 

"Thanks Jarvis." Toni replied, hurrying to Peter's room.

Toni paused outside the bedroom door, listening. She couldn't hear anything wrong...no, wait, that was definitely a sob. 

She pushed the door open very slowly, not saying anything. She walked into the room and sat down on the floor with her back to the bed. She placed her hand on the bed next to Peter and waited. 

A small hand crept into hers, and she heard a sniffle. She chose not to comment. Instead, she just sat, waiting till the sniffles calmed down. 

After a long time, she turned her head. "Nightmares?" she asked, quietly.

Peter nodded, sniffing again.

Toni turned her head away again. "I get them too." she said, quietly. Something about 3 AM made confessions easy. 

She didn't say anything else, just sat there and stared at the wall for a long time, holding Peter's hand, until...she heard a snore. 

She turned around to see that Peter had fallen asleep, still holding tightly on to her hand. So tightly, in fact, that she couldn't pry her hand away; eventually she gave up and just lifted herself on to the bed next to him.

She fell asleep surprisingly quickly.

\---

Morning dawned bright and beautiful, and Toni felt more rested than she has since...well, since New York, really. 

She climbed out of bed and went to take a shower. Peter looked so adorable that she left him to sleep; he needed it, anyway.

She headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. The most important meal of the day, after all. 

“Ma’am, I believe there is a box of pancake mix in the cupboard, if you felt like attempting it.” Jarvis sounded almost sarcastic; Toni clucked her tongue at him. 

“Are you casting aspersions on my cooking skills, J?” she asked. 

“Never, ma’am.” he responded dryly. 

Pancake mix wasn’t really that hard; in a few minutes, it looked vaguely like it was supposed to look. Which just meant she had to cook it, of course. The cooking was the hard part. She pulled a frying pan out of the cupboard and put it on the stove. Then she looked at it. 

Jarvis, trying to be helpful, turned the stove on. Toni, turning around to pick up the batter, made a surprised noise. “What the-?” 

She turned back to the stove to see Peter standing on a stool and trying, with difficulty, to get some batter from the bowl and onto the frying pan. She rushed over, because he looked ten seconds away from dumping the whole bowl on his head. 

“Whoa, there, little man. Slow your roll!” She leaned over top of him and steadied the bowl with her hand. Peter looked up at her with an expression like _well, you weren’t doing it, so someone had to._

Toni was a little unnerved that she got all of that from one look. She shook her head to clear it, and put her other hand over top of Peter’s. Together they lifted the spoon and splooshed a big round blob of pancake onto the frying pan. 

They watched it, anxiously. 

Peter shot Toni a look that said _nothing’s happening._

“Well, we have to give it a minute to cook, first.” Toni replied, before realising how weird it was that she’d just answered a question that wasn’t even spoken.

They went back to watching the pancake. Jarvis helpfully opened a drawer so that Toni remembered to get a spatula. Breathlessly, they watched as Toni carefully lifted the side of the pancake, then solemnly slid it onto the spatula and flipped it over. Or tried to, anyway. It didn’t really work, and the pancake kind of folded in two. 

Peter sighed. Toni ruffled his hair. “Next one, bud.” 

\---

Over the next hour, most of the pancakes turned out misshapen, and more than half were either overcooked or undercooked. To Toni and Peter, however, they were delicious.

When Pepper showed up at eleven, she found them sitting at the breakfast bar, covered in a mix of pancake batter and syrup. Peter was giggling while Toni told a story that involved a lot of hand gestures. Incidentally, this was flinging bits of pancake all over the place, which only added to Peter’s giggles. 

Pepper stopped far enough away to avoid being hit by flying pancake crumbs. Peter waved at her behind Toni’s shoulder, causing Toni to turn around. 

“Pepper!” Toni cried. “Want some pancakes?”

“No thank you, Toni.” Pepper smiled. “Good morning, Peter.” 

Peter smiled and waved while Pepper walked forwards and shifted the pile of tablets and folders in her arms. “I just need you to sign some things, Toni.” She found the right paper and made to slide it on the bar; she stopped when she noticed how sticky said bar was. 

Toni looked at the bar, then at her hands. “I guess we better wash up, huh?”

Peter looked at his own hands and nodded, looking sheepish. 

Toni jumped off her stool and leaned forward to help Peter off his stool; then they headed to the kitchen sink. When they were sufficiently un-sticky, Toni sent Peter upstairs to change and joined Pepper in the dining room. 

Toni sat down and picked up a pen; then looked up to see Pepper looking at her...weird. That was the only way to describe it. 

Toni put the pen down again and heaved a sigh. “...what.” she asked. 

Pepper widened her eyes innocently. “Nothing!” she said, shaking her head. “I’m just impressed by how well you two are getting along, that’s all!” she leaned forwards and patted Toni’s hand. “I’m happy for you.” 

Deflect and distract. “Thank you. Now, what am I signing?” 

Pepper narrowed her eyes suspiciously; Toni never voluntarily wanted to know what she was signing. “The final papers for relocating Stark Industries to this building.” she said. “Also, we have an appointment with your lawyer after lunch to go over some things for finalizing the adoption.”

Toni made a face; Pepper made a face right back. 

\---

“Thank you very much, Matt.” Pepper said, shaking the lawyer’s hand. 

“You’re very welcome.” he replied. Then he shook Toni’s hand as well. “I wish you all the luck with your new family, Ms Stark.” 

“Thanks.” Toni said. She liked Matt; he was very genuine. 

Nothing interesting had been revealed during this meeting. Basically, Peter had inherited mostly everything from his parents and his Aunt and Uncle. He had two houses which were going to be sold; that money, along with all the other money he’d inherited, was going into a trust fund. The things from inside the two houses were mostly being sold, and whatever wasn’t was going in a storage container. 

Mostly it all had to do with money and was very boring. Toni hadn’t had to think about money since, well, ever; she wasn’t very good at concrete numbers. She was much better at theoretical numbers and load bearing weights and estimated trajectories. 

The most interesting part of the meeting had been the discussion of Richard, Mary, Ben and May Parker’s funeral, which was this coming weekend. Matt was of the opinion that Peter should go, because it would bring closure; Pepper was of the opinion that there was _no way_ he should go, because it would just be painful for him. 

In the end, it was Toni who decided to take him only to the actual funeral itself, for two reasons. One, she really did think it would bring him some peace, of a sort, and two, it would show whoever was watching Peter that he was protected now. That was if they didn’t know that already.

\---

Toni stopped on the 65th floor of Stark Tower to pick up Peter, who was with an HR intern -- apparently childcare was somewhere on a list of things interns do every once in a while. She found him drawing in the break room with a young woman sitting next to him filling out forms. 

The woman jumped up when Toni knocked on the door. “Ms Stark!” she cried, nervously. “Peter’s just been a doll, he’s been very quiet and so well behaved, he was really no problem at all, really-”

“Thank you, I really appreciate this.” Toni interrupted, cutting off her nervous rambling. She patted the back of Peter’s chair. “Let’s scoot, little man.” Peter dutifully climbed out of his chair, grabbing his drawing as he went. Toni smiled at the young woman, who was still wringing her hands nervously. Toni looked up at her. “Really, thank you” she said, trying to be genuine. She wasn’t sure how well it came across; the intern still looked terrified as Toni and Peter exited the room. 

\---

In the elevator to the top floor, Peter tugged on Toni’s sleeve. When she turned, he held up his drawing to be admired. 

Toni dutifully leaned down and examined it. “Is that a giant spider eating a car?” she asked. 

Peter nodded and gestured at the rest of the figures in the drawing. 

Toni looked closer...they were pretty recognizable. “The Avengers?” she asked. 

Peter nodded again, then pointed at a specific figure flying above the others, this one coloured red and gold. 

“...Iron Maiden?” she asked. 

Peter nodded again, then did something complicated with his face that Toni didn’t understand. He lowered his drawing and pointed at the crayon Iron Maiden, then at Toni. When Toni looked confused, he did it again, tapping at the light on her chest that was shining through her t-shirt, and shooting her a look like, _duh_. 

Ohhh. Well, at least she didn’t have to do a dramatic reveal, or anything. “Yup.” Toni said. “That’s me. Iron Maiden.” 

\---

Peter followed Toni to the back wall of the workshop. Jarvis activated the moving wall as they approached and the suit came sliding out, illuminated by a spotlight. 

Peter gave an audible gasp of awe before walking forwards and reaching his hands out. He hesitated right before touching it, looking back at Toni. 

Toni waved him forwards. “Go ahead.” 

Peter put his hand out tentatively and ran his hand over the suit, his face shining in awe. Toni crouched down next to him and put her hand next to his, trying to see the suit through his eyes. How amazing it must look, to a child. 

She stayed down there who knows how long, watching Peter observe the suit. This was her engineer son, all right; he didn’t just want to look at it, he wanted to _see_ it, and know how it worked. He ran his hands all along the parts that he could reach, and when he ran out of those, he gestured to her to pick him up so he could see the higher parts. When he was done with the outside, Toni opened it up so he could see the inside, too. The expression of equal parts awe and fascination on his face made it more than worth it. 

\---

Toni had to physically pull Peter away from the suit when it was time for dinner. The sadness on his face would have been comical if it wasn’t also heartbreaking. 

“We’ll come back, buddy, I promise. The suit’ll still be here after dinner.” 

Peter just pouted at her. 

 

“Peter, sometimes I forget to eat regular meals, but if I did that to you, Pepper would kill me, so we have to go eat something. Unfortunate but true.”

Peter looked less than impressed by this news. 

“You want a sandwich for dinner? I make a mean dagwood.”

Peter looked confused. 

“A dagwood is like...when you just through whatever’s around into your sandwich. Like leftover spaghetti. Or chinese food. Or Avocado. Pepper leaves food here, while complaining that I need to hire someone to grocery shop for me if I i’m not gonna do it myself.” Having such a quiet person around was making Toni do a lot of monologuing, she’d found. “And, no, I’m not gonna do it myself, because this is New York, and you can literally get everything delivered. And _then_ , she complains that that’s not good security. And I say, Pepper, this building has the best security in the entire city of New York, I’m pretty sure one delivery guy’s not gonna mess that up. Especially when the delivery guys don’t even come all the way up here, they just deliver their stuff to the lobby and then someone else delivers it up here.” 

Peter nodded solemnly. Toni put him down on a stool at the kitchen island and started rooting through the fridge. 

“That’s probably also on that list of things that interns do. Interns have to do a lot of stupid stuff.” 

Peter tilted his head, asking a question. 

Toni was getting better at reading these. “What’s an intern?” she asked. 

Peter nodded. 

Toni pulled some turkey out of the fridge and sniffed it. “An intern’s someone who who has a job, but only for a little while. Normally it’s part of school or whatever. Like, you work somewhere for a little while to get experience, and then you go back to your teacher, and you say ‘look what a good job I did working in the real world for a little while!’”

She held up some onions for inspection. “Onions?” 

Peter considered them, then nodded. Toni added them to her growing pile. 

“I’m pretty sure we have a bunch of interns here. You know the lady that watched you today?” Toni pulled an unmarked jar out of the fridge, sniffed it, and recoiled. Then she looked up, and Peter nodded. “She’s an intern, probably. I’m gonna say she didn’t think childcare was part of her job when she signed up.” 

Toni closed the fridge and started assembling sandwiches. “When you’re just starting out, though, you gotta take what you can get. I wonder what else she has to do?” 

Toni passed Peter a the bread and a jar of mustard. “Here, spread this.” she handed him a butter knife. 

Peter took the knife and approached his task with great seriousness. 

“Also,” Toni said, “I wonder if the boy interns have to do that sort of thing? I hope so, otherwise I’ll have to raise a complaint.”

Peter tilted his head again. 

“Well, I mean, it’s not really fair if the girl interns have to babysit, but the boy interns don’t, don’t you think?” 

Peter considered it for a moment, then nodded. 

Toni brandished a turkey knife. “Exactly. If someone in the company ever has to watch you again we should make sure it’s a boy. That way it’s fair.” 

Peter handed the mustard covered bread over to Toni. He’d also managed to get mustard all over himself, in the process. Toni tried to hide her laughter while she went to get a washcloth to try and clean it up. 

“Look at you, little man, you’re exactly like me; can’t do anything without getting covered in dirt.” 

Peter looked as his hands and made a face like _this isn’t dirt, it’s mustard_ , which sent Toni into a fit of giggles again. Then an idea hit her, and she pulled out her phone to take a picture. 

“Smile, bud.” Toni said. Peter looked extremely disgruntled. Toni took the picture anyway, wondering why this hadn’t occurred to her yet. 

Probably because she was still having trouble with the fact that Peter was staying for good. But here he was, sitting in the kitchen at Stark Tower covered in mustard, looking exactly like he belonged there. 

\---

Later that night, Peter insisted on wearing the Iron Maiden pajamas, so Toni took a picture of that too and sent it to Pepper. And then she set it as her phone background, just because she could, and she said goodnight to Peter, marvelling in the fact that he was here, with her, and she wasn't alone any more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's your promised chapter, guys! I got another job and more shifts at my other job and therefore I had the craziest fall. Thus it took two months for this chapter to be written. I'm sorry. I'm terrible at this. *crawls away to hide in the corner*  
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos on the previous chapter; they are the reason this chapter got written at all. Feel free to keep leaving them! :)
> 
> Also, a short cameo by Daredevil, lawyer to superheroes. ;)
> 
> Beta'd, as always, by dragonsspire. She is my most favouritest favourite. 
> 
> I hope you like it!


	6. Phone Calls and Funerals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a funeral.

Toni ended up taking what Pepper called ‘the lazy way’ and announced her adoption over twitter, posting, "the new No. 1 guy in my life!" along with the mustard picture.

It took about three minutes, give or take, before the internet caught hold of it and started freaking out, and about two minutes more before Pepper phoned her. 

Toni barely had a chance to say hello before Pepper started talking. “Toni, do you want to explain to me what the hell you just did?”

“Uh…” Toni replied, hesitating. 

“Because three different tv stations and one magazine have already called me, asking, ‘what does Ms Stark mean by this tweet?’ and ‘who is this child in Ms Stark’s tweet?’ and I had to say to them, ‘excuse me? What tweet?’ and I really don’t appreciate finding out from _Us magazine_ that you chose to announce your adoption to the world through _Twitter_.”

“Um...sorry? I just didn’t want it to come out all warped through some crappy paparazzi photo or something.”

Pepper sighed, “What do you want to tell the press? Since you’ve ruined all chances for us to do this in a controlled manner. You know it’s been five minutes and you’re already at a million replies.” 

“Wow, really?” Toni’s Twitter was pretty crazy on a regular day, but that had to be a new record. 

“Yes, really.” Pepper sounded exasperated. “And despite the fact that I have a million other things to do right now, it has fallen to me to talk to you because no-one else company wants to do it.” 

“Well, that just seems silly.” 

It sounded like Pepper was rolling her eyes. Don’t ask how Toni knew what that sounded like. She just did. 

“I think they’re just used to me dealing with you.” Pepper said. “Really, PR just needs to know what you want your official statement to say.” 

“Um…” Toni thought about it for a minute, “tell them to say it was a personal decision, and then tell the press to go fuck themselves.” 

Pepper sighed and probably rolled her eyes again. 

\---

The press statement ended up saying mostly that, just worded more politely. 

_“The child in the picture is indeed the newly adopted son of Ms Stark....Ms Stark’s decision to adopt was a personal and much meditated decision. She has asked that the press kindly give her and her son space at this time, as they are still getting to know each other.”_

There was a lot of other jargon, but mostly it sounded like a lot more information than it actually was. Toni asked them not to give any information about Peter; instead she spent the next few days picking random tweets to answer and posting more pictures. 

**Toni Stark** _@Iron_Maiden_  
“ _@graciegrace16_ : OMG! What’s his name?” Peter. :)

**Toni Stark** _@Iron_Maiden_  
“ _@p32t_ I love him already, he’s so cute! How old is he?” Six years and ten months.   
He’ll be 7 in september. :)

**Toni Stark** _@Iron_Maiden_  
Spent all day getting dirty in the garage...literally. _#thatsmyboy_  
http://instagram.com/p/u8lApnLaSL

The picture was of the two of them covered in grease, with a car engine in the background; Toni and Peter had spent the day taking it apart and examining all the different pieces, getting themselves covered in oil in the process. Peter had been the happiest Toni had seen him so far; she considered the day a success.

\---

Friday morning, Toni got an unexpected phone call. 

“So, Toni. Today, I land on American soil, and I get handed a newspaper, and you know what’s on that newspaper?”

Toni hadn’t been expecting Rhodey back in America for at least two more months...and yet.

"How would I know? I didn't even know you were coming back!" Toni replied, trying to be nonchalant. 

"I'm not really back. I got called back temporarily for War Machine stuff. And apparently I was literally gone three weeks and in that time you've _adopted a child_."

"Uh...yes?" 

"Toni..." Rhodey sighed, "why?"

"Cause he needed me, that's why." Toni said, glancing into the living room, where Peter was sitting on the floor drawing.

Rhodey huffed air out of his nose, which meant that he wasn't angry anymore but he was trying to pretend like he still was. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" 

"Rhodey, this literally happened like three days ago while you were incommunicado in Afghanistan." 

There was a pause. "...fair," Rhodey said. 

"So are you gonna come by, then?" Toni asked.

"I'll see if I can. But I think I’m stuck in Washington for as long as this takes...oh, and guess what!?" Rhodey's voice rose in excitement.

“What?” 

“I get to meet _Captain America_.” Rhodey said.

Toni snorted. “I’m sure you’ll get along famously, he’s a stick-in-the-mud just like you.”

“Toni, do not tarnish my meeting a great American hero.” Rhodey hissed.

Toni started laughing. “A great American - ha!” she guffawed. Pausing for breath, she asked, “why don’t you consider me a great American hero?” 

She held out about two seconds before she started laughing again. She could _feel_ , physically, Rhodey’s derision wafting towards her over the phone. It was meant with love, though.

At that point Rhodey seemed to remember the original reason he’d phoned. “Seriously though, Toni, sometimes you forget to feed _yourself_ , how are you going to raise a _child_?”

Toni sobered abruptly, and a flood of emotions rushed over her. “I don’t know, Rhodey. I don’t know.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “Everyone just looked at me like, ‘well this is your kid! Take him!’ and I didn’t have time to even think about it, really, and then it just...happened.” Toni leaned her head on her elbows and breathed through her nose.

“Whoa, Toni, deep breaths,” Rhodey instructed.

“Seriously, Rhodes, no-one stopped to think what a _terrible_ idea it was to give me a child?”

“Toni, stop right now” Rhodey ordered. “Pepper would never have let this happen unless she was one hundred percent certain that you could do it.” He paused, letting Toni digest that, then continued, “I know that, and you know that, and therefore that’s not what’s freaking you out. So spit it out.” 

Toni breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. Then again, while Rhodey waited, patiently. 

“Ok.” Toni took another deep breath. “Did I ever tell you about the year I went to a New Years Party in Switzerland?” 

“No,” Rhodey replied. 

“I don’t really like to talk about it.” 

“...why?” Rhodey prompted.

“Because...because I got pregnant.” 

Rhodey made a noise that would have been a gasp, if Rhodey gasped ever, which he absolutely did not.

“It was this fancy smart people conference, and there was this guy; I don’t even remember his name now. Micheal? Matthew? It started with M.” Toni shook herself and continued, “anyway, I got pregnant, and I had a baby, and I gave him away, and I continued on with my life of debauchery.”

“...right…” Rhodey said, waiting to hear what this had to do with everything else.

“And then! And then.” She huffed out a shaky laugh at the absurdity of her life story. “Then I got captured by crazies in Afghanistan and I built myself a suit and I blasted my way out...you know that part.” 

“Yeah.” Rhodey confirmed. 

“Lots of shit happened, and my life was crazy, and I never thought about that baby. Cause that baby wasn’t my baby anymore. He was someone elses baby, nothing to do with me. But you know what?” she paused to sniff loudly. She could feel tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. “When I was in that cave, Yinsen, he asked me about my family. And you know? For a second I thought about that baby. And I thought - no, I _knew_ that I was going to die in that cave. And I thought, ‘well at least there’s someone out there who can carry a piece of me. Even if he doesn’t know it.’” She let out a shaky sob. 

Rhodey made a noise that was half comforting, half ‘I don’t know how to deal with crying’. 

Toni wiped her eyes furiously and continued, “So then they walked into my living room and they told me I could -” she sniffed, “I could have my baby back. I could have a second chance. And what was I supposed to say?” Toni was full on crying now; she couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried so hard. “And it’s _freaking me out_ , Rhodey, how much this kid is like me. How attached I already am.” She drew in an unsteady breath. “I would do anything for this kid. This kid I met _three days ago_. And it’s scaring me, it’s scaring _the shit out of me_.” 

A movement in her periphery caught Toni’s eye, and she turned to see Peter leaning around the kitchen island with big worried eyes. Toni smiled a watery smile and crouched down, which Peter took as permission to dart forward and throw his arms around her neck. 

Toni buried her face in Peter’s hair and just cried. 

There was a silence on the other side of the phone until Toni's furious crying had calmed down. Finally, Rhodey said quietly, “I think you made the right choice.”

Toni sniffed. “Thanks, Rhodey.” Peter scurried away for a minute before returning with a tissue, which Toni accepted gratefully. 

“I gotta go, Toni,” Rhodey said, “but I’m glad you got that out of your system.”

“Yeah,” Toni said. “Talk to you later.” 

\---

The rest of the week went by mostly in a blur. Peter and Toni spent most of their time in the workshop, sometimes together and sometime separately. The more time they spent together, the more Peter warmed to Toni. He started smiling more, and laughing more, and it gave Toni warm feelings. 

\---

All that progress came crashing down on Saturday, the day of the funeral. 

That morning, Pepper arrived bright and early with a dress for Toni and the smallest suit Toni'd ever seen for Peter. Toni got herself ready, which was relatively easy. Pepper helped Peter because she didn't trust Toni to do it herself, which was fair. Pepper insisted they take Happy, even though he wasn’t really Toni’s bodyguard anymore, but Toni still drove. Toni always drove.

The funeral was outside. It was a beautiful day. Why are funerals always on beautiful days? Death isn't beautiful, it's tragic, and unnecessary, and horrible. It's two parents leaving a seventeen year old genius entirely on her own. It's the only adult who ever cared about you disappearing forever. 

Toni tried to focus on what was happening in front of her. A preacher was speaking in that tone that all preachers seem to have; calm, reassuring and gentle, all at the same time. Peter was holding her hand and looking deathly pale. As family, Peter had to sit in the front row, which Toni was pretty sure just made it worse for him. As they sat there, the grip on her hand got tighter and tighter. She gripped back tighter in response. 

An audience dressed in black sat silently, and Toni fought the flashbacks that were threatening to overwhelm her. 

The last funeral she'd been to had been on a day just like this one. The preacher and the crowd and the speeches were almost interchangeable. The only difference was the absence of a flag wrapped around the left coffin.

Toni stroked Peter's hand with her thumb and tried to give him a reassuring look. She wasn't sure if it worked. She willed the preacher to finish talking. He did, after what felt like endless hours, but he was just followed by someone else. At least Peter perked up slightly, which Toni took to mean that he knew this person. 

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Doctor Kurt Connors. I worked very closely with the Parkers for many years. Over those years, I had the honour and the privilege to get to know these two extraordinary individuals." The doctor paused, then continued, "Richard and Mary Parker were intelligent, dedicated, creative, and most of all, the best friends a man could ask for." 

Toni had heard vaguely of Doctor Connors. She knew he worked for Oscorp and that he had made great strides in the biological sciences. Come to think of it, that must be where she'd heard of the Parkers, too. She had felt she'd heard the name before.

Doctor Connors' speech was actually quite lovely. Then someone else got up to speak about Ben and May Parker, then someone else sang, and then the preacher stood up to speak again. 

Finally, Toni was snapped out of her own memories by the mass movement of the crowd as they stood up and started moving. Peter was tugging on her hand, and Toni looked down to see him white as a sheet, with big watery eyes. Toni scooped him into her arms with no hesitation and prepared to swoop him as far away as possible. 

She gestured frantically to Happy, who had been relegated to the back row. Happy, thankfully, understood her manic gesturing and darted away to bring the car around. Peter had his face buried in Toni’s neck, and Toni could feel him shaking. 

Toni was intending to head straight to the car. The guests, however, had other ideas. She turned towards the parking lot, only to find that the guests had formed a line behind her. For what intention, she had no idea. 

The first person in line was a matronly older woman. She looked at Peter, curled into Toni's shoulder, and made a pitying sort of 'tut-tut' sound. 

"Poor child," she said, "my condolences." She looked at Toni. "I'm Cheryl, I lived next door to the Parkers. Are you a relation?" 

Oh. That's what all these people were in line for. To offer their hollow condolences while really trying to satisfy their curiosity about Toni. Plus the fact that they most likely all knew who she was. 

Toni shook her head. "No." She didn't say anything else. Cheryl looked somewhat offended; Toni said thank you and walked away before Cheryl could say anything else.

Toni walked right by the people who had formed the line; they all looked confused as to why she was breaking funeral protocol. Toni didn't care, she was too busy trying to get a panicky child away as fast as possible. 

Then, she heard a voice calling, "Stark!" 

The voice sounded vaguely familiar, so she turned around. She instantly regretted it when she came face to face with- "Osborn." she said, stonily.

Norman Osborn. Her biggest competitor, and quite possibly the most smarmiest, and most obnoxious man she'd ever met in her life. 

“I’m surprised to see you here, Stark”” Osborn said. “The Parker’s were _my_ employees, you know,” he smiled in a frankly terrifying manner, “and yet, here you are. And you and young Peter seem so close.” 

“Well, you know,” Toni said, “I’ve just always been so fond of children.” She tried to smile as creepily as Osborn was smiling.

“Yes.” Osborn said. “You know, I have a son just Peter’s age.” 

Toni hummed an agreement, distracted by Peter, who had stopped shaking, but had also stopped moving altogether. 

“Maybe they would enjoy each other’s company.” Osborn continued. “Being a billionaire’s only child can be rather...lonely, wouldn’t you agree?” he smiled sickeningly at her. 

Toni smiled an entirely fake smile back at him. “Have your people call my people. Maybe we can figure something out.” She gave a little wave with her free hand and started walking away. “In the meantime, excuse me.” 

“Of course.” Osborn turned to watch her walk away in an entirely disconcerting way. Toni tried to suppress the shivers of both fear and dread that were crawling up her spine. That man freaked her the hell out. 

\---

Toni finally made it to Happy and the car after that. She reluctantly pried Peter out of her arms so she could buckle him into his carseat. Happy shot her a sympathetic look while she climbed into the driver’s seat, but didn’t say anything, thank god. 

Toni watched Peter carefully in the rearview mirror as colour slowly returned to his face, the further they got from the cemetery. 

Nobody said anything until they reached the Lincoln tunnel. 

“Well, that was a trainwreck,” Toni said. 

Peter nodded from the backseat. 

“And I think we deserve ice cream.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Instagram link goes to a picture on my personal Instagram. The two Twitter handles are actually mine and dragonsspires' NaNo handles. 
> 
> Thanks for waiting so long...over Christmas my grandpa passed away, which delayed this chapter even more than it was already delayed. 
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated...thanks to everyone who leaves comments, you guys are the reason this continues to be written. :)


	7. School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First grade is discussed.

Peter showed no signs of ever feeling like talking. Toni didn’t really blame him, honestly. He’d dealt with a lot of trauma in his short life. 

The month of July passed with two attacks from Loki, one attack from Magneto, and one internal crisis that resulted in a dead scientist and the superhero-ing of a man named Wendell. Coulson showed up sometimes to be infuriating, and Shelley the nice social worker showed up on a schedule to check on Toni and Peter and make sure they were both doing alright. Both she and Peter's therapist, who Toni had spoken to on the phone but never met, assured Toni that Peter would talk whenever he felt comfortable, and that she shouldn’t worry about it. 

\---

Pepper showed up one day very early. 

She had a tendency to do this on the days that Toni had only got three hours of sleep the night before and was instead running on bacon and obscene amounts of coffee, and this irritated Toni to no end. 

Peter ran from the kitchen to the front door and threw his arms around Pepper for a hug. Toni followed and shot her the best death glare she could from over the rim of her coffee mug. 

Pepper breezed past Toni’s death glare like it didn’t exist (Toni hated that) and placed a folder on the kitchen counter. “Coulson and I have organized all of Peter’s school details, since we rightly assumed you wouldn’t do anything about it.” She started pulling papers out of the folders. “But you still need to sign some things.” she said. 

“Always with the signing things.” Toni replied. “Why was I supposed to think about school? I had a private tutor until I went away to boarding school at twelve.” 

“Yes, Toni, we’ve all heard your sob story” Pepper held out the papers, “just sign here please.” 

Toni grabbed the pen and started looking at the papers. Paying attention to what she was signing was becoming a disturbing trend. “So, where is Peter starting first grade? It is first grade, right? We could probably fast track him to second grade, he is my kid, after all.” 

“John F Kennedy Elementary School. It’s a Shield run school.” 

Toni rolled her eyes. “Of _course_ it’s a Shield run school. Can’t just send my kid to a normal elementary school where he could be a normal kid. Nope, gotta send him to top secret spy school.” 

Pepper huffed. “It’s not a _spy_ school. It just has teachers that are also agents, so that the kids are safer. All the shield people send their kids there. Otherwise it’s an entirely normal elementary school.”

“Not a private school?” Toni asked, “I would’ve thought you’d send him to a private school.” 

“Contrary to popular belief, Toni,” Pepper replied, “I do listen to some of the things you say.” 

Toni smiled and planted a giant smacking kiss on Pepper’s cheek. “Cause you love me.” she said. Then she pulled some photos off the counter and knelt down next to Peter, who’d been silently observing this conversation. She showed him the pictures. “This is your new school, Peter. You’re gonna be in first grade.” 

Peter made a face that was half _that sounds terrifying_ and the other half _why do I have to go to school with all those plebeians?_ which was what Toni had always thought about school, so she didn’t begrudge him. Instead she just patted him on the head, “trust me, you’ll thank me later.” 

\---

Toni and Peter visited the school a few days later and got a tour with a whole group of other parents and children. It seemed like a good school; it was in a very nice neighborhood and it didn’t seem to be crumbling away at the edges or anything. It wasn’t like Toni could really compare it to anything, but objectively it seemed nice. Then they sat down with Peter’s first grade teacher, who was, Toni learnt later, an ex shield agent who’d left the espionage business when she’d married a civilian. Her name was Emma Sinclair, and she said “this is first grade, you can call me Emma.” 

Toni explained how Peter didn’t like talking. Emma nodded, and Toni assumed that she’d read Peter’s file. "Peter," Emma said, "as long as you're learning, you don't have to talk." She looked down at some papers on her desk and then looked at Toni again. "I've developed a curriculum based on learning through images, which we'll try out first, and we'll go from there. Providing that Peter is ready to learn, we shouldn't run into any issues."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW this is a really short chapter considering how long it took. I am trash. Sorry. 
> 
> JFK is a completely made up school. Any mistakes regarding the American school system or the American social system are because I'm Canadian and Americans are crazy. 
> 
> LEAVE COMMENTS YOU GUYS  
> Comments are the reason this thing gets written at all. Seriously. 
> 
> Love you all!  
> 

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by [dragonsspire](http://dragonsspire.tumblr.com), my favourite person. Tags and characters will be added as we go along. 
> 
> Please leave me your thoughts in the comments or look me up on [tumblr](http://may-the-fandoms-be-with-you.tumblr.com). :)


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